Int. Statistical Inst.: Proc. 58th World Statistical Congress, 2011, Dublin (Session CPS070) p.6847 The issue of acces to clean water in The Democratic Republic of Congo 1. INTRODUCTION Most of the water resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are stored in the Congo River basin. This is one of the biggest global water reserves. Based on its geography and landscape position the DRC belongs to two hydrographical waters derived, namely 61% of the Congo River basin and the Nile River Basin whose springs are based in Lake Edward. Located in the heart of Africa and straddling the equator, the DRC is one of the wettest countries in Africa. The territory receives significant rainfall throughout the year, which is about 1,200 mm per year on average. The annual rainfall volume is estimated at more or less 6,000 billions m³ with a runoff coefficient of 21.6%. The water resources wealth of the country is relatively clear. The Congo River’s average flow per second is 42,000 m³. Its minimum and maximum flows are respectively 23, 000 m³ and 80,000 m³; while the maximum flood peak observed in 1961 was 83,050 m³/s and the most noticeable low water recorded in 1905 is 21,490 m³/s. Therefore, given the size of its catchment (3,822,000 km ²) and its average rate, with 38 % of drainage to the oceans at the continent level, the Congo River is the first in Africa and the 2nd in the world behind Amazon Rio (6,300,000 km ² and 100,000 m³ / sec), with 3.4% of world drainage to the oceans. With its 4,700 km length the Congo River has about 20 tributaries, some on the right bank and the other on the left bank. It is the second in Africa after the Nile and the 5th in the world by its length. One the third of the basin is located in the northern hemisphere and two-thirds (2/3) in the southern hemisphere, so much so that the flooding of the rivers in the South tropical zone match in time with the low waters of the rivers of the North tropical zone and vice versa. This geographical distribution has a beneficial effect added to the large basins’ inertia (floods and retention) and propagation delays of hydro grams producing a significantly regular regime downstream. Its floods are largely buffered by the presence of vast flood zones in the center of the Central Basin which cover more than 200,000 sq km (Lake Tumba and Mai-Ndombe) and extend partially in the country (DRC, Code of Water,2010). Nevertheless, qualitatively the challenge of potable water supply in DRC, which had a2,345,409 km ² surface and a population approaching 60 million people in 2006 is still a problem. In fact, in order to serve its population with quality drinking-water, the DRC created the Board of Water Supply of the DRC (REGIDESO, ) which is a public service and the National Service of Rural Water, SNHR, a specialized structure of the Congolese government. Unfortunately, REGIDESO is not present throughout the country, and in places where it is present, the problem remains unresolved because its services are often inadequate. As for it, SNHR lack of means does not allow them meet all requests. In addition, it can be noted that the Congolese people do not care about having a good source of drinking water. A critical look at their priorities reveals that potable water is the least of their worries. As a matter of fact, in 2010 a FSRDC monitoring and evaluation report on the World Bank Int. Statistical Inst.: Proc. 58th World Statistical Congress, 2011, Dublin (Session CPS070) p.6848 funded Emergency Social Action Project (PASU) evidenced on 647 sub-projects implemented throughout the Republic for a value of USD 38 million, 74 (0.11%) relate to potable water while 357 (55%) deal with the education sector. (FSRDC, PASU Monitoring and Evaluation Report, 2009). 2. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY RELEVANCE To conduct this study, we used THE DRC data from the Demographic and Health Survey 2007 (DHS- DRC-2007). This survey was carried on all the Congolese territory and is a quality source of data worth for social and economic analyses. In addition, in our humble opinion the DRC-DHS 2007 data have not been exploited yet to highlight the development relationships detectable between the quality of potable water used the and population’s health. This research will provide the decision makers involved in the drinking water sector with useful data. 3. THE QUALITY OF DRINKING WATER USED BY THE DRC POPULATION Table 1: Quality of drinking water by place of residence and provinces in DRC in 2007* Place of residence Quality of water used by province urban rural Total 8.2% 8.2% Kinshasa Non potable water 91.8% 91.8% Potable water 18.7% 69.7% 56.7% Bas Congo Non potable water 81.3% 30.3% 43.3% Potable water 32.8% 80.2% 66.3% Bandundu Non potable water 67.2% 19.8% 33.7% Potable water 76.3% 91.9% 87.5% Equateur Non potable water 23.7% 8.1% 12.5% Potable water 15.1% 62.7% 46.3% Orientale Non potable water 84.9% 37.3% 53.7% Potable water 3.5% 55.2% 39.1% Nord-Kivu Non potable water 96.5% 44.8% 60.9% Potable water 29.2% 85.2% 65.2% Maniema Non potable water 70.8% 14.8% 34.8% Potable water 13.7% 62.0% 49.4% Sud-Kivu Non potable water 86.3% 38.0% 50.6% Potable water 15.2% 88.4% 55.1% Katanga Non potable water 84.8% 11.6% 44.9% Potable water 9.0% 76.3% 52.0% Kasai oriental Non potable water 91.0% 23.7% 48.0% Potable water 67.7% 93.9% 84.4% Kasai occidental Non potable water 32.3% 6.1% 15.6% Potable water *Table designed based on data from DRC–DHS 2007. Int. Statistical Inst.: Proc. 58th World Statistical Congress, 2011, Dublin (Session CPS070) p.6849 It appears clearly in Table 1 that only the people from Kinshasa and North Kivu provinces in the DRC have quality drinking water. In all the remaining provinces, a small proportion of the populations have access to drinking water, whose 12.5% and 15.6% respectively in Equateur and Kasai Occidental. It is also clear that rural populations in all provinces in general constitute the majority of users of unsafe water. These differences are better shown in Figure 2 below: Graph 2: la qualité d'eau consommée en RDC par milieu de résidence 100 82 75 80 52 60 48 urbain rural 40 25 total 18 20 0 eau de boisson non potale eau potale *Graphics designed based on data from DRC–DHS 2007. 4. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DRINKINK WATER QUALITY AND HEALTH OF CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 5 IN THE DRC Based on DRC-DHS 2007 data, a positive relationship appears between drinking water use and the frequency observed in diarrheal diseases presented by children in the DRC with a highly significant p- value, i.e., < 0.000. In fact, apart from those in Kinshasa city and Bas Congo, children living in all other provinces with high access to unsafe drinking water have higher frequencies of diarrhea diseases. In the Kasai Occidental the rate reached nearly one child out 4. Table 2: Relationship between water consumption and diarrhea in children aged less than 5 years in the DRC in 2007 * Int. Statistical Inst.: Proc. 58th World Statistical Congress, 2011, Dublin (Session CPS070) p.6850 NO YES p-value Provinces (in %) (in %) Kinshasa 86.5 13.5 <o.ooo Bas-Congo 89.8 10.2 Bandundu 86.1 13.9 Equateur 85.1 14.1 Orientale 86.2 13.8 Nord-Kivu 83.3 16.7 Maniema 83.3 16.7 Sud-Kivu 82.1 17.9 Katanga 83.9 16.1 Kasaï-Oriental 78.4 21.6 Kasaï-Occidental 75.9 24.1 Total 83.5 16.5 *Table designed based on data from DRC–DHS 2007 5. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WATER FETCHING AND CHILDREN4S SCHOOLING Children are subjected very early to fetch water in both rural and urban areas. Based on data from DRC-DHS 2007, there are rates of children repeating the classes and dropout among children aged 5 to 24 years who attended school the year before the survey. Repetition rates are higher in the first grade. Overall, 14% of children repeated the first grade. This rate reached 25% in Kasai Occidental, 20% in Orientale Province and 15% in Maniema and North Kivu. As for it, school dropout is much higher in rural areas regardless of the grade. And in three provinces -- Equateur, Katanga and Kasai Occidental the 6th grade is more affected while in the Province Orientale and Maniema the 5th grade is much affected (DRC DHS -2007). Knowing that children of these age groups work on water fetching, a positive link between school dropouts and the inaccessibility to water. 6. DISCUSSION This study results demonstrate that despite quantities of valuable freshwater resources, the drinking water supply is low in the DRC and access to drinking water is a persistent issue for the DRC. These results confirm those of the study by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) stating that 51 million Congolese have no access to clean water. It's a real paradox: a country with more than half of water reserves in Africa has its ¾ of the population without access to drinking water.